A Tale of Two Jam Buds Volume 2
by Lionheart261
Summary: A collection of Steven and Connie fics written for the Jam Bomb 2 event over on Tumblr. Rated T for some instances of serious violence.
1. Day 1-Endless Possibilities

The rain gently fell upon the windows of the temple cabin, providing a gentle background noise as the two children dozed in front of the television, reruns of previous _Under the Knife _episodes still playing as Lion let the pair sink into his mane. While they continued to sleep, a bright light lit up the room as the Warp Pad activated, admitting Pearl as she returned from a personal mission. It didn't take long before she took sight of the two sleeping soundly, and gently moved upstairs in order to turn off the television. She leapt down gracefully, landing onto the floorboards without a sound as Garnet came in from the bubble room. With all of the corrupted gems cured, the room's primary function was more or less rendered obsolete, but Garnet still enjoyed going in there from time to time to reflect. Pearl looked around the room, noticing how empty it felt.

"Where's Amethyst?" she asked Garnet.

Garnet took only a few seconds to answer. "She will return in approximately four hours from a party with some of the other Quartzes."

Pearl chuckled. "Peridot and Lapis?"

"CPH marathon."

"Bismuth?"

"Busy at the forge-said she was working on something new which she will show us in approximately five days."

"...Jasper?"

Garnet paused. "...I'm still uncertain. The possibilities are all too distant to predict with any real accuracy. She has been unresponsive to Amethyst and Steven's attempts to contact her, and Lapis does not want to see her."

Pearl sighed. "Understandable." She attempted to search up another name to brighten up the conversation. "Oh! What about Lars?"

Garnet chuckled. "Steven will tell me many hours from now that Connie saw him leaving Sadie's house by jumping the fence."

Pearl had to laugh at that. "Is that so? Well...how about that, huh?"

"It was pretty obvious," Garnet replied frankly.

Pearl chuckled some more at the bluntness of Garnet's statement, before her gaze shifted to the two children in front of the screen.

"...What do you see for them?" she asked, as Garnet looked at her with a look of confusion, which shifted into understanding. Then a knowing smile played out across her face.

"There are many possibilities for their futures," she replied. "Most of them too far off to place much stock in. What may yet occur after everything that's happened is too nebulous for me to make out anything truly concrete." She then paused as she considered something, and her smile returned.

"What is it?" Pearl asked.

"There is one detail that I've found in common in all of the possible futures that I can see," she replied. "In every single one of them, as long as both of them are alive..."

Pearl smiled as she understood what she was getting at, and finished it for her.

"They're together."

Garnet smiled warmly. "No matter what."

The two relaxed in the kitchen as the rain continued to fall, chatting aimlessly about all sorts of things until the rain came to a stop with the break of dawn.

* * *

The Day One prompt for this one was "Rain." Just a short little bit of fluffiness with two cuties. The more dramatic entries in this will be coming later on. Anyway, hope y'all liked it, be sure to check out other Jam Bomb content throughout other social media over the course of this week, and I hope y'all are looking forward to the next one of these fics coming out on Tuesday! With all that said, have a fantastic day, and take care.


	2. Day 2-You Can Be a Hero

For Connie Maheswaran, life seemed to be a nigh endless series of mediocre days. While her grades remained exemplary and her parents strict, yet generally supportive, the continual moving around posed a problem as far as making friends went. And, of course, there was the matter of the almost-daily taunting from whatever group of arrogant idiots decided she was a decent verbal punching bag. In some cases, the bullying started with a physical altercation, but when it did, if the offender wasn't out of school by the time Dr. Maheswaran was done with the principal, then Connie would be, and probably out of the city for good measure. For those bullies who actually had a single functioning brain cell, the verbal harassment was uninspired, yet frequent, and no less malicious in spite of its utter unoriginality. She'd been hearing the same kinds of comments since the age of five, and all because of one singular trait.

Connie Maheswaran was Quirkless.

She suspected she probably would've been bullied regardless of this fact. She certainly fit into the stereotypical mold of a human target: glasses, a generally shy personality, overwhelming book smarts, a tendency towards carrying hand sanitizer on her person at all times, an interest in historical sim games and sci-fi fantasy epics with more pages than their school textbooks.

But, as it stood, especially with how society was by this point in time, being Quirkless made you a human target by default, almost as much as being neurodivergent may have in centuries past, before the "advent of the exceptional" paved the way for most traditional prejudices being virtually eradicated. It was certainly viewed in similar terms-as a disability, a thing that made you physically **less **than everyone else. Of course, she was always quick to point out that "everyone else" only meant about 8 out of every 10 people, but then again, her tormentors were rarely that good at math. She also had to wonder how they got the notion that having no Quirk at all was even worse than having a Quirk that gave you, say, a literal cactus for a head. No eyes or mouth or anything, just a cactus. You're a cactus person-that is the nature of your existence on this Earth.

In any event, she'd be lying through her teeth if she said the continual harassment didn't bother her, but due to the aforementioned unoriginality, most of her days were simply mediocre. But, to her sorrow, there would be some days that broke this monotony.

Today had been one of those days.

As it turns out, the middle school bullies weren't the problem on this particular day-at least, not any more than usual. No, the problem lied with Beach City's resident rich punk, a college student by the name of Kevin. With a superiority complex matched in size only by his parents' bank account, he was generally disliked by just about everyone in town. To make matters worse, his Quirk was particularly nasty. His Quirk was called Timelapse-giving him the ability to control how any non-living thing was affected by the passage of time, speeding up or slowing down the natural decay it would experience, as long as he was in physical contact with it. In the hands of a more righteous person, a powerful hero may have been born. However, in the hands of Kevin, this mostly just amounted to various acts of cruelty.

The incident occurred as Connie was walking home from school. Being lost in her thoughts as she read through her notebook, she hadn't noticed the sports car speeding down the hill at a speed much faster than the recommended 25 mile per hour limit. Having taken martial arts classes since she was eight, she had remarkably good reflexes, and managed to leap up into the air just as the car came screeching to a stop, the driver seeming to nearly hit his head against the dash as he did so. With the car now below her, she landed on the hood relatively safely, leaving a dent in the metal and sending her notebook flying out of her hands before she quickly leaped back off, still high on adrenaline and various other stress hormones. Before she had a chance to calm down, however, Kevin walked out of the car in a huff, yelling obscenities at the girl as he went.

"Oi, why don't you watch where you're going, four eyes?!"

Under ordinary circumstances, Connie might not have so readily told him off, but having just narrowly avoided a car accident, she was considerably more pissed off than normal.

"Why don't **you **pay better attention to the road, idiot?!" she retorted, which only intensified his anger.

"You frickin dented my car! Do you have any **idea **how much that's going to cost to fix?!"

"Do **you **have any idea how much you'd have to pay for running someone over? You were going, like, seventy miles an hour! In a neighborhood!"

Enraged beyond words, he only just noticed the notebook Connie had dropped during the incident. He picked it up on a whim and began leafing through its contents.

"Let's see what was so fricken important you couldn't be bothered to look at the road."

"What the-hey! Give that back!"

As she attempted to grab it, he lifted it up out of her reach, snickering as he came across some particular pages mixed in with her notes.

"'Chivalrous Hero' Constance?" he read aloud. "Are you kidding me with this?"

Her face reddened in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "I said give it back!" she repeated, punctuating it with a higher leap that narrowly missed Kevin's outstretched hand.

"The resident waste of space becoming a lame hero? You **cannot **be real right now," he said, a malicious grin spreading across his face. Connie cried out in frustration as she continued to leap for the notebook. Kevin simply chuckled as he continued to hold the book in his hands. "Okay, you want it back? Fine."

Without another word, he activated his Quirk. Within seconds, the notebook's bindings began to bend into strange shapes, while the pen on the cover became increasingly faded. The cover itself became malformed as the pencil lead on the pages seeped into their neighboring pages, giving the whole thing a grey-ish tint. After that, the book itself began to lose its structural cohesion, becoming increasingly faded and tattered. With a final grunt of effort, Connie decided to leap off of the hood of Kevin's car once more, grabbing the book out of his hands in mid-air before taking off in the opposite direction.

"Ah, what the-oh, you are **so **dead!" Kevin called out, giving chase, but after a looping course through several backyards, she managed to lose him. She stood hiding behind some random person's fence as she heard his twice-dented sports car roar past, its engine seeming to be a reflection into Kevin's own psyche. With a sigh of disappointment, she glanced down at the remains of her book, warped beyond all recognition. Tears threatened to sting her eyes, but she blinked them back angrily before tossing the ruined book into her backpack. Suddenly not having any strong desire to go home to an empty house, she decided to turn around and head somewhere else to calm her nerves.

* * *

"Yes! Finally!" Steven cried out in triumph as the boss recoiled in pain from the finishing blow, before exploding multiple times and falling into the background in defeat. The victory of his main character was punctuated with a dramatic fanfare, followed by the introduction of the time-honored credits minigame. As he absentmindedly shot at the names of the games' developers, his eyes began to wander towards the window. No sooner had he finally shot the giant name of the company that produced the game when his eyes fell upon a girl he had only seen before in passing, and whose true identity remained elusive. What caught his eye this time, however, was the look on her face: like she had just spent the entire walk there barely restraining the urge to cry. Or, perhaps, had already been crying. Steven ignored the congratulatory message on the screen as he raced down the steps of his loft and out the front door without a word, intent upon finding out what was the matter.

By the time he got down to the beach, the girl had already sat down on the sand with her back facing him, and pulled out what looked like a really old and worn notebook. He guessed it must've been some old heirloom from her grandmother or something-only that could explain the condition it seemed to find itself in. Unsure what to do, he eventually steeled his resolve and revealed his presence.

"Hi! I'm Steven!"

Connie didn't seem to care much about his arrival, still intent upon the notebook and only letting out a slight grunt of acknowledgement. Slightly perturbed, he tried again.

"What's that you're reading there?" he asked in his usual friendly, inquisitive tone. The kind that betrayed a still almost-childlike curiosity about the world, in spite of the fact that he was mere months away from entering high school.

The girl started in surprise, apparently now having fully registered his presence, and hurriedly hugged the notebook close to her chest to prevent inspection. "Uh, n-nothing!" she responded instantly. Steven simply smiled softly.

"Doesn't look like nothing to me," he replied. "It looks like it's something pretty special, actually." After a few seconds he took a deep breath and continued, "...May I?"

She eyed the strange boy warily, still keeping the book close to her. Steven figured that she'd refuse his request right then, but after a second she laughed mirthlessly, catching Steven off guard. "Sure. Why not? Seems to be all the rage at the moment." She tossed the notebook to the sand and turned away sullenly. Steven hesitated for a second before picking it up. In its current condition, it was hard for him to make out the words or the various drawings. An idea popping into his head, he drew a hand close to his mouth and licked it until saliva began to collect upon it, before tapping his palm to the book. Connie was at first horrified when she heard the sound, lumbering across the sand to stop him from ruining her notebook further. However, no sooner had she fallen onto the sand mere inches away than the book began to glow with a warm white light. Unable to look away, she soon found her book in immaculate condition.

"Ah, there we go! Now it looks much better!" Steven said smiling. Connie, meanwhile, stared at it in awe.

"H-how did you do that?" she asked timidly.

"Hm? Oh! Sorry, I totally should've asked before using my Quirk on your notebook!" he replied sheepishly. "It was just really hard to read and looked kind of beat up, so I thought it might be nice if I fixed it up and I'm really sorry and-"

"Okay, just-slow down, please," she interrupted. "Your Quirk?"

Steven took a deep breath before explaining. "Right. It's called Restoration. It's pretty complicated, but basically, anything my spit touches is reverted to an ideal previous state. Wait, that's actually not too complicated," he added, slightly embarrassed. "See it for yourself," he added, holding the notebook open. Connie moved herself until she was sitting right next to Steven, the proximity causing him to blush slightly. As she looked over his shoulder and he thumbed through the pages of the notebook, she noticed how much crisper every page seemed to look, even the older ones. Eraser marks were completely gone, what few colors she'd added into her drawings seemed far brighter, and there was no residual smudging. She couldn't shake the feeling that the description of the Quirk was somewhat familiar.

"These are really good," she heard Steven say softly, evidently struck by the quality of her drawings. Connie found herself blushing.

"Y-you really think so?"

"Yeah! Especially the notes you added in! Like, over here, on Obsidian's page." As he spoke, he thumbed through to a page featuring Connie's drawing of a heavyset, African-American woman with rainbow dreadlocks and twin gauntlets of what she called her "Breaking Points." Aside from information regarding the function of her Quirk-Heat Proof-there was also a note by the gauntlets: "_Base frame of gauntlets around tungsten-steel alloy to increase melting point, improve effectiveness in high temperature environments." _Steven beamed after he read the note aloud. "These are all really insightful!"

The blush only deepened as Connie realized that Steven actually meant what he was saying, judging from the look in his eyes.

"T-thanks," she replied. "Your Quirk is pretty amazing too. Seriously, it's like I drew all of these five minutes ago!" she remarked, to which Steven nodded.

"That's the long and short of it. It's fixed up to the best it can possibly be." Steven seemed to pause as he thought of additional relevant information. "Truth be told, it's a little finicky on what exactly it 'restores.' Like, it can't restore an old person to the prime of their youth or something, but it can put someone's body into perfect working order in just about every respect. Of course, that gets into a whole bunch of ethical issues, and..." he let the thought hang, as Connie nodded in understanding. Steven chuckled to himself as another cool application of his power came to mind. "My dad even mentioned my mom bringing somebody back from the dead with it! Although, I think I also remember her getting sued afterwards. Something about him losing all of his memories? It was weird."

At this, Connie paused. That nagging feeling from before was back, even more intense than before. "Your mom had the same Quirk?" she asked tentatively.

Steven seemed to pause for several seconds before revealing this information. "Not really. Hers had some similar traits, but it was pretty distinct-it could only affect living things, and it came from her tears, not her spit," Steven replied. "Also, it didn't really 'restore' living creatures as much as 'enhance' them, granting them greater intelligence and some enhanced physical abilities."

At this, Connie's eyes widened. "_No," _she thought. "_No way. This cannot be happening."_

"...You said your name was...Steven?" Connie asked. Steven cocked his head in confusion before answering.

"That's right. Steven. Steven Universe."

The name echoed through her mind like a bullet piercing her innermost thoughts. So caught up was she in this revelation, which seemed to click all of the puzzle pieces together at once, that any sense of tact or restraint was completely lost.

"MADAM UNIVERSE WAS YOUR MOM?!"

Her thoughts were spiraling out of control. Madam Universe, alternatively known as Rose. The hero who took America by storm. The woman who headed the most popular hero team in America, the Cosmic Gems. One of the most popular heroes in America, period. Records of her exploits had made their way into hero schools across the entire world, one of many heroes whose service left a major impact on history.

This was, of course, saying nothing of the service records of her associates. The "Shape-shift Hero" Amethyst, also known as the Purple Puma, is the youngest and most versatile member of the group, using her wide variety of possible forms to great effect. The "Hologram Hero" Pearl is a master combatant, made all the more deadly by her Quirk's ability to create solid light copies of herself. And, of course, the fiery duo of the "Rocket Hero" Ruby and the "Fortune Hero" Sapphire were both highly skilled combatants and partners, in more ways than one. Sapphire's Future Vision Quirk was the bedrock behind all of their operations, while Ruby's Rocket Fists made her a powerful physical combatant. Aside from them there was also the hero Obsidian, who she'd drawn separately, and who had gone by Bismuth before she had a falling out with Rose and left the team. All in all, they remained Connie's all time favorite group of heroes, and she was hardly alone in her appreciation.

Oddly enough, the amount of information on her personal life was rather limited. Her marriage to the up and coming indie music artist "Mr. Universe," prompting her name change, made headlines when it was announced, as well as angered more than a few not-so-subtle admirers in the hero community. And, of course, the news that she had died in childbirth had come as a source of great sadness and shock to many. From there, however, all that was known about her was that she had a son named Steven, who was being cared for by his father and the Cosmic Gems, now led by Pearl. But to think that they had settled down in this one small town...

"I cannot believe this! I am actually talking to Madam Universe's son! Holy sh-uh, heck! Holy heck! Oh my gosh! This is just..." Connie trailed off as she noticed the downcast expression on Steven's face, and she instantly realized her error.

To her and many other people, Madam Universe was the greatest hero of all time, a departed figure whose name still evoked feelings of reverence and sadness at such a bright person being taken from the world so soon. But to him...Madam Universe was his mother. A mother he'd never have the chance to meet.

"...Oh my gosh, I am **so **sorry! I just-I wasn't even thinking, I-" she said, her shame evident as Steven held up his hand.

"It's...fine," Steven replied, his voice suggesting anything but. "Truth be told, I **do **like hearing about how many fans she still has." He chuckled as he remembered an odd piece of trivia. "I, uh, I read once that the American Billboard Chart actually had her listed at number 1,357, even after she was..." he trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. "They passed a rule stopping...that sort of thing, soon enough."

Connie looked at the boy, who seemed to have all of his boundless optimism drained right out of him. "You don't have to sugarcoat it, you know," she replied frankly. "I screwed up. I shouldn't have brought up such a sensitive subject like that."

Steven paused before slowly nodding. "Well...what's done is done, anyway." He sighed deeply before continuing. "Honestly, it isn't even the fact that she's gone that bothers me that much. It doesn't feel like I've been deprived of something. My dad is the coolest dad in the multiverse, I've made some friends around town, and the Gems are the best quasi-aunts anyone could ask for. It's just...she just has this **presence**, you know?"

Connie's eyes widened in understanding. "You're worried about whether you could ever live up to her."

Steven started before nodding sadly. "Yeah. I-I mean, it's not like I don't **want **to be a hero. I do! I've wanted to be one from the moment I got my Quirk-probably before! But...I can't deny it gets pretty stressful at times."

"Yeah...got a lot of pressure on my end, too," Connie admitted, stretching as she sat down in the sand. Steven considered this before responding.

"Yeah, I could tell you wanted to be a hero," Steven said, some of his brightness returning. "Your costume design looks really cool!"

Connie blushed. "T-thanks. It's really nothing special-just some basic body armor dressed up to fit the whole medieval theme."

"Noticed that it specified a metal alloy of some kind. Is that your Quirk-some kind of ferrokinetic power? Or is your Quirk more suited for combat in general-like, really fast reflexes or something? Or..." he trailed off as he noticed the look in her eyes, which he could instinctively tell was similar to the one he had likely had moments before. His mind raced through the possibilities, seeking to apologize for whatever he'd said, until he remembered too late a detail of her page unique from the others: there was no section for her Quirk. "..._Oh_," he said in a small voice.

"Yeah," she replied curtly.

"...Well, I suppose that makes us even, huh?" he said, attempting to make light of the situation.

Connie chuckled. "Yeah. Guess it does." After a while she began to open up a bit. "I'm not even sure why I'm still trying for it at this point."

"Being a hero?" Steven asked. "That seems easy enough-because you want to be one! ...Right?"

"Well, yeah, but...we don't always get what we want. Especially in my case," Connie replied sadly. Steven hesitated before putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe not, but sometimes, when you put in as much work as you can muster into getting what you want, you're pleasantly surprised."

Connie blinked. "B-but I'm Quirkless. How would I-?"

"You already outlined how you could do it in your costume," Steven replied frankly. "Body armor, weapons, gadgets-support companies could definitely hook you up with whatever you needed there. Plus, with enough physical training, people can get pretty tough on their own. Sure, you'd get some people giving you hate no matter what, but...something tells me you'd get a lot of support."

As Connie continued to look at him unconvinced, Steven sighed, showing a slight irritation. "You've obviously put a lot of effort into answering that question. That, to me, shows that you believe this is possible."

"M-maybe a long time ago, but-"

"You drew this a week ago," Steven shot back, pointing at the date. "Called it 'Version 5.0.'"

"...A lot can happen in a week."

"Look...Connie," Steven said, glancing at the name she wrote in the top right corner of the page, "I'm not that sheltered. I know that a lot of people are jerks about this sort of thing, and I can only imagine what some of them have done to you for their own stupid reasons. But-and, forgive me for being presumptuous-I'm pretty sure they're the only ones going against you here."

"It...doesn't always feel like that," Connie admitted. "My parents...I've learned not to bring up heroes around them. They'd never tell me to give it up outright, but...something in their eyes just..." Connie trailed off before her eyes widened. "...How long have we been talking again?"

Steven laughed, realizing the absurdity of the situation as well. "I dunno, fifteen, twenty minutes?"

"Holy **heck**, this conversation took some dark turns," she said, chuckling as well in spite of herself.

"You can say that again!" Steven said, laughing. "Ah...guess we were both, just, **really **desperate for someone to talk to about all of our weird emotional biz."

"Heh...yeah," Connie replied. "It was kind of...freeing, in a way. Just...having someone who listens."

"Yeah..." Steven agreed, before an idea popped into his head. He pulled out his phone and unlocked it, creating a new contact. Connie chuckled softly and followed suit, with the two handing their phones off to each other in order to input their numbers.

When they were done, Connie glanced at her phone to find the usual afternoon text from her mother, asking her to confirm that she was home. "Ah, shoot! I should probably get going. If I don't video call my mom from my room soon, she's going to freak."

Steven chuckled. "Yeah, Pearl is...similar. Talk later?"

Connie looked back at Steven, whose smile seemed to have gotten even brighter than it had been before, and whose eyes shone all the more because of it.

"Yeah. I'd like that."

Hours later, when both of their parents got home from work and asked them what they had done with their day, both of them would give a simple response, smiling warmly throughout as they recalled the experience.

"I made a friend."

* * *

So yeah, in case you couldn't tell where most of the creative energy went...

The prompt I did for Day 2 was "Superhero AU," and since anyone who knows me on here knows that I am a total sucker for My Hero Academia, the reason behind making this particular AU should be obvious. Ngl, just figuring out where all the characters went and what Quirks they'd have was really, **really **fun. I'm kinda tempted to turn this into a full-blown crossover fic. Let me know what you all think. In the meantime, as always, thank you all for reading, and be sure to give a look-see to other Jam Bomb content over the week. See you tomorrow!


	3. Day 3-A Friendly Wager

The Crystal Gems stood in the hallway before a large glass window, Lapis and Peridot holding hands while Pearl leaned against Bismuth's shoulder. Amethyst leaned in to get a closer look, while Garnet stood with her arms crossed, observing the ward much like a museum goer examining a work of art. Through the window, they could all see the dozens of babies currently under the care of the Charm City Hospital Maternity Ward. More particularly, they could easily make out the twin cribs under the name "Universe," as a boy and a girl with brown eyes and black hair slept peacefully.

"They're beautiful," Pearl said, to everyone's general agreement.

"Indeed," Peridot concurred. "Truthfully, the process behind their gestation struck me as being rather crude and messy when I first looked into it for my own research...but you can't argue with the results."

Lapis chuckled, ruffling Peridot's hair. "You're a big dork, you know that?"

Peridot grumbled as she put her hair back into place. "I hate it when you do that."

"No you don't."

Peridot simply blushed and looked away, while Lapis giggled slightly.

"I wonder what they're going to be like?" Amethyst asked, looking intently at the boy.

"Garnet?" Pearl asked, but Garnet simply shrugged, chuckling as she did so.

"Don't look at me," she said. "There are way too many possibilities for me to sort much out."

"Surely you know something about how they'll grow up?" Bismuth continued. Garnet thought for a moment before pointing at the boy.

"He will be very much like his mother-intelligent, brave, caring, yet not quite as sociable as his father." She then pointed at the girl. "She will be Steven's daughter-cheerful, optimistic, a perpetual ray of sunshine, and a friend to everyone she meets." She chuckled. "That's about as much as I have."

"Aw, come on, not even their names?" Amethyst asked, pouting slightly. Garnet smiled.

"I have a handful, but what fun would it be just telling you what they are?"

Amethyst chuckled. "So we're making this a bet then? Alright. I'll go with Greg Jr. and Rose."

"I've read that in human culture it's customary for the mother to select the names," Peridot countered. "Thus, it stands to reason she would select names of greater personal relevance to herself than to Steven. Priyanka and Doug make the most sense under this paradigm."

"Eh, not many humans seem to like naming their kids after their parents," Lapis pointed out. "Plus, they're twins, so...Aditi and Aditya."

"How'd you come up with those?" Peridot asked before she noticed that Lapis was holding her phone in her right hand. "Pfft! Figures."

"You got any bets, hon?" Bismuth asked Pearl, to which she chuckled.

"Oh, I've never been that great with names. But...Priya and Adam."

"Ha! Well, I'm laying down Amy and Andy!"

"You really think she'd name one of 'em after me?" Amethyst asked, her face betraying her giddiness at the idea.

"Eh, it's possible," she replied jovially. "Plus, Andy doesn't have any kids of his own-it'd be a nice way to pay homage."

Suddenly, their musings were interrupted by a pink portal coming into being in the middle of the room, before Lars, Sadie, and Andy stepped through, the latter looking particularly agitated.

"Hah! Man...ten years and I'm still not used to all this," he said with a chuckle.

"Sorry we're late," Lars said apologetically. "We tried getting Fluorite to fit through the doors, and she wouldn't unfuse, so..." he said before his hair glowed, and the Off Colors all stepped out. Fluorite was the last to emerge, electing to keep only her head visible so as not to take up too much space.

"Hello...everyone," she said in her usual manner. "I...apologize for the...inconvenience." Meanwhile, Padparadscha put her hands to her cheeks, squealing with delight.

"Ah! They are so adorable!" she said, looking in the direction of the cribs.

"Did we miss much?" Sadie asked.

"We're taking bets on baby names," Amethyst replied. "Anyone wanna take a shot?"

"Hm...Lionel and Rosemary," Lars suggested.

"Or maybe just Mary," Sadie added.

"I'm definitely feeling Rose and Greg," Andy remarked, chuckling.

"How about you guys?" Amethyst asked the twins. "You seem to be the resident experts, in a sense."

The Rutiles laughed. "Nah, we couldn't really come up with any good human names," the left Rutile remarked. "Not even if we tried," the right Rutile added.

"Rose and Pranav," Padparadscha remarked. "Oh! After her grandfather! That's so sweet!"

The rest of the gathering looked over to Padparadscha in confusion before understanding dawned.

"Oh my gosh," Amethyst said, dumbstruck.

"Should've remembered to take her out of the bet too," Lapis said with a grin.

"Wait, but if she just said it, then how long ago did they-?" Lars began before the doors opened to admit the happy couple, alongside Greg, Priyanka, and Doug.

"Thank you all for sticking around, everyone!" Connie said with a smile. "I trust you've already met-"

"Rose and Pranav," Garnet said, smiling.

"After your grandfather," Pearl added.

Connie and Steven's eyes both widened before Steven began laughing. "Garnet! You promised not to say anything!"

Connie began to laugh as well. "Yeah, how did you all-?" she asked until her eyes fell on Padparadscha. "Ah. Right. Of course." Everyone else smiled, chuckling to themselves at the whole situation.

"Oh, and we were thinking of making Rose's middle name DeMayo," Steven added, causing Andy's face to brighten up slightly.

"Well, all I know is, they're going to be the coolest niece and nephew an uncle could ask for, no matter what their names are," he said with a smile. Everyone else expressed their agreement with the sentiment, all of them moving to congratulate the couple once more as Rose and Pranav Universe continued sleeping soundly, completely unaware of their presence.

* * *

Alright, Day Three of the Jam Bomb is done with! Another short one-the prompt here is Children, which I could've possibly done more with, but I was coming off of the heels of two of the larger entries in this series, so I decided to keep things simple and fluffy. As always, hope you guys enjoy!


	4. Day 4-Pink

Connie had been sleeping soundly, grateful when Peridot offered to take watch for that night. They had been keeping watch over Beach City for three days by that point, while Steven and the main Crystal Gems went off into space to check on Homeworld following a slightly concerning vision from Garnet. Thus, Connie, Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth moved into the temple, with Lars and his crew also promising to keep themselves alert in case any trouble arose. Of course, with Homeworld maintaining a policy of leaving Earth business alone, and the corrupted gems cured, there wasn't much left to pose a threat to the Earth. Thus, Connie felt she was allowed to relax.

However, her sleep was disrupted by a loud crash in the kitchen, followed by panting and muttering from a voice she recognized. After the crash jolted her awake, she rubbed her eyes and attempted to clear her head before responding to the intruder.

"Lars?" she said, still somewhat sleepy. "What are you doing here?"

Lars turned his head to her abruptly, causing her to let out a cry of horror as she took in the fact that his chin was in the process of regenerating.

"There's no time! You all need to get up pronto! That Steven is-"

No sooner had he spoken than another pinkish portal opened up in the hallway, maintaining its integrity for several seconds before a familiar figure stepped through calmly, as if he had all the time in the world. Getting a good look at him, Connie only hesitated for a second before spotting the numerous differences. For one thing, his outfit was completely different, bearing some resemblance to the dress Steven had worn on Homeworld. His was more of a suit, complete with a dark pink cape. Further, unlike Steven, he looked considerably more his age, being taller and actually possessing a visible neck. Finally, and most strikingly, his eyes and the veins along his arms seemed to glow with a pink light. Given what Connie had witnessed on their previous sojourn to Homeworld, she was wary of the implications.

"Ah, curious. I thought your appearance was familiar," the alternate Steven spoke, his voice similar to Steven's yet devoid of any positive emotion. "Just like the father my mother insisted on keeping alive..."

Connie's eyes widened in horror as she began to get an idea of how this alternate Steven was. "Who...who are you?"

The alternate Steven's eyes widened slightly, as if he recognized the girl. Connie shuddered at the thought of a similar alternate of herself.

"...No. This isn't possible, I...I **killed** you," he said slowly, disbelief evident across his features. "Unless...hm. A rather intriguing possibility. I was scarcely even aware my powers extended to such realms." Seeming to register Connie's question, he chuckled like someone with a new sense of awareness on a puzzling issue. "If you must know, my name is Pink Diamond the Second."

"How did you get here?" Connie continued, to which Pink simply laughed.

"Do you think I don't know what you are doing? You're buying time for whatever associates you may have to arrive and subdue me. The only reason I'm continuing to indulge you is because I know that their efforts to oppose me shall be meaningless." As Connie simply looked back at him, he continued, "I was surveying the planets held under my purview, utilizing the same method of travel as you just did." He pointed to Lars before continuing, "For whatever reason, this dimensional shift transported me here, to what I can only assume is an alternate universe."

Connie nodded in understanding-she had quickly come to the same conclusion regarding his origins.

"But now that you know, why not try and head home?" Connie asked, to which Pink chuckled.

"Well, truthfully, that was my first thought. But after the unexpected challenge this one gave me earlier," he began, looking at Lars before he laid his arm out flat vertically, a pinkish spike forming around it to create a makeshift weapon. "I figured I'd amuse myself. And the first order of business?" Pink smiled maliciously, as if he was recalling a pleasurable experience. "I'm going to make you cry out in agony. All over again."

Without a second's hesitation, he sprung forward towards Connie. Connie scrambled to grab her sword from the loft while Lars sent out a shockwave punch, intercepting the spike and causing it to fizzle out. Annoyed, Pink extended several additional spikes in his direction, forcing Lars onto the defensive as he parried the repeated strikes. Having grabbed her sword, Connie attempted a slash to Pink's back, but found herself impeded by a crystalline shield projection, similar to the one the gem Steven had utilized against White. She then found herself on the defensive as well once several pink spikes punched through the projection, which she narrowly avoided.

"Hm. Not bad," Pink mused, before unleashing a series of long spikes from all throughout his body, nicking Connie in the arm in her attempts to dodge and sticking Lars' arms to the wall of the fridge. "But...not good enough," he finished, grinning evilly as he approached Connie. Without hesitation, she lunged at him with her sword, but Pink was quick to defend himself with a makeshift arm spike. Although parrying her strikes nonchalantly at first, he soon found himself expending some degree of effort.

"Well, I'll be," he remarked as one definitive slash shattered the pink spike. "Your combat abilities are most remarkable...for a human." With that, he sent out another round of protrusions, this time with flat tips in order to push her into the wall above the couch. As she found her arms and torso held in place, her sword wrested from her grasp, she struggled to free herself while Pink chuckled. "You certainly didn't have this much fire in you the last time," he added, forming another spike. "Now...where should we start, hm?"

No sooner had he said this than he casually raised a pink shield just in time to intercept a shockwave from Lars' mouth. Sighing deeply, he suddenly leapt forward faster than Connie could see, before punching Lars in the stomach hard enough to send him flying through the wall of the kitchen and out to sea, evidently forming a deep gash in the space pirate's stomach on his way out.

"Ah...much better. Now, then, where were we?" Pink resumed. After a moment of thought as Connie continued to struggle, he concluded, "Ah, yes-where to start. Hm...I think I'll start with the left foot and work my way up." No sooner had he come up with this plan of action than he heard the now-broken sink pipes spraying water profusely. As he turned to look, in mere seconds they were turned directly into his face by some invisible force, causing him to cry out in surprise and frustration. Turning around as he put up a shield to block the water, his eyes locked onto a smirking Peridot holding out her hands to bend the piping. He readied a spike to send out towards the new intruder, only to hear a curious sound coming from the water that had been rolling off of the shield. Almost as if it was clumping together into some larger shape. No sooner could he turn around to examine this when a large water fist punched him in the side of his face, sending him crashing through the front door and flying for several city blocks before finally crashing into the sand of the beach below. The spikes were quickly smashed by the water clone of Garnet which Lapis had evidently generated, allowing Connie to fall down to the couch relatively unharmed.

Connie's face brightened up as the water clone gave her a thumbs up before leaping out of the cottage in pursuit of Pink, but she still couldn't resist the urge to let out a slight jab at her friends. "Heh. Took you long enough."

Lapis flew into the wrecked cottage and hovered next to Peridot as Lars lay draped across her shoulder, still in the process of regenerating and parts of his shirt completely torn off. "Yeah, sorry. We were out patrolling the ocean. Next thing we knew, Lars was flying into the water. So...we picked up what was left of him."

"Hit like a frickin **truck**," Lars muttered weakly as he finally regenerated enough to walk, Lapis promptly letting him down onto the ground.

Suddenly, the temple door opened to admit a panicked Bismuth coming back from the makeshift forge she had set up in Amethyst's room. "I'm here! I'm here! What's going-?!" she paused as she looked first at the other members of the Crystal Temps and Lars, before switching to looking at the several holes in the cottage. "...Welp. Fixed this place up once, I can do it again," she said resignedly, to Connie's slight amusement.

"So what is going on?" Lapis asked. "Lars tried telling us on the way here, but he hadn't regenerated his diaphragm yet, so it was kind of hard to make out anything."

"Evil Steven, hits hard, spikes, total psychopath," Lars got out as briefly as he could manage. The other gems nodded.

"I'm assuming any additional backup isn't a possibility?" Connie asked tentatively, but Lars shook his head.

"I stuffed my crew into my head while I was busy escaping. He poofed Rodie and Fluorite, but the others are fine and holding onto them. With luck, they're making it through Lion and meeting up with Steven as we speak."

Connie's face brightened up along with the others as they learned that the other Crystal Gems would be coming to their defense. "So all we gotta do is hold the line," Bismuth replied confidently before shapeshifting her hands into hammers. "Alright, gang-let's go show this bizarro boy that we mean **Bismuth**!" She leapt from the cottage and sailed towards the crater where Pink had evidently landed. Lapis sighed in annoyance.

"She really needs to work on her repertoire," she said dryly before flying after her, Peridot following close behind after jumping back onto her trash can lid. Connie swiftly moved to pick up her sword before Lars grabbed her by the waist and sent both of them into a portal.

When they reemerged on the beach a short walk from where Pink landed, they found him locked in fierce combat with the Garnet clone, continually frustrated as he cut it to ribbons with his spikes, only to find it punching him once more. He let out a howl of frustration as he stuck several more spikes into the clone.

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! JUST! DIE?!" he screamed as each spike struck the clone, breaking it up into pieces only to reform seconds later. Lapis smirked as she looked at her handiwork, while Peridot sent a few food cans flying in Pink's direction. As he turned his head to send out a spike at Peridot, Bismuth and the Garnet clone charged at Pink, sending him flying across the beach with a powerful hammer-punch combo. Forming up to meet him, a second Garnet clone followed that up by smacking him into the air, and several globs of water soon rose up at different positions before forming Garnet clones of their own, knocking him around the sky like a pinball. Just as Lapis was readying a final Garnet clone to send him flying into the ground, however, Pink stopped himself by floating in mid-air.

"Oh, right. Floating powers," Lapis commented.

"I don't even want to **know** what happy memories are keeping him up there," Bismuth added.

Without another word, Lapis attempted to maneuver the Garnet clones through the air, but as soon as they all got into range, Pink attempted a direct punch at the nearest one, splitting it apart, before others moved in to fill the gap. He threw several more punches and kicks, but found himself grappled by each limb, leaving the other floating Garnet clones at liberty to attack. In desperation, he formed a spiky bubble, pushing all of them back. To counter this, Lapis sent them hammering away at the bubble while pulling up a massive wall of water in order to form a far more dangerous clone.

Pink looked up as he continued sending out spikes from his bubble to push back the Garnet clones, before his eyes widened slightly. "Ah he-" he muttered before the clone of Yellow Diamond brought both of her fists up against the bubble, popping it and sending Pink straight into space, disappearing from view.

"That'll only shake him up for a minute, guys! We've got to keep it going!" Bismuth said, readying herself for when Pink would inevitably teleport back. Lapis began bringing the Garnet clones back to the ground as she hovered in the air. Connie, Lars, and Peridot likewise readied themselves.

"Eh. Still felt good," Lapis remarked good-naturedly, only to find her attention drawn by the sound of a portal opening. Before anyone but her could react, Pink had returned and readied a powerful kick which Lapis could only barely manage to avoid. As she flew out of range, Pink sent a series of spikes after her, but found them intercepted by Lars, who had come through a portal in mid-air as well. This threat dealt with, Lars proceeded to jump between several portals, landing minor strikes on Pink as he continued taunting him.

"Sonic uppercut! Sonic punch! Sonic roundhouse! Sonic-ACK!" he cried out as Pink kicked him into the sand, sending him spiraling into a crater. No sooner had Connie begun to approach alongside Peridot to try and do some slight damage than the Yellow clone attempted to hit Pink with a powerful punch. Replying in kind, the resulting shockwave sent Peridot and Connie careening wildly off course and onto the ground.

As Pink floated himself once more, he opened up a portal before the Yellow clone could land another hit, reappearing behind it to land a roundhouse kick to the back of its head. Working as well as such attacks did before, Pink's frustration became more and more pronounced, leaving him distracted enough to be sent deep into the ground by another powerful blow. Leaping back upwards within a few seconds, Pink decided on a new tactic, summoning his conventional shield just as the Yellow clone swung at him. The punch collided with the large shield, letting out a loud clanging sound as all of the clones began shaking, losing their cohesion. Within seconds, all of them had collapsed into puddles of water. Pink began laughing maniacally as the Crystal Temps looked on. Lapis hurriedly attempted to create another clone, but soon found her arm pinned to the ground by a spike.

"Lapis!" Peridot cried out, attempting to take off on her trash can before it was torn apart by another spike, sending her back onto the ground to be pinned by a second spike. Connie and Bismuth likewise moved to strike before finding themselves pinned by more pink spikes. As Lars was still busy regenerating after climbing out of the crater, he could only look on as his friends were put in danger. Pink finally allowed himself to relax, believing the danger to have passed.

"Well, I must say this has been a rather frustrating engagement, but not altogether unpleasant," he consoled the group, grinning evilly. "But...I do believe I've exhausted all of the enjoyment to be found here." With that, he began readying a series of spikes, all designed to impale the various members of the Crystal Temps. As they all attempted to free himself, Lars charging up a sonic roar from his mouth, Pink's laughter continued incessantly, before it was interrupted by a familiar object emerging from Lars' hair and hitting him across the face. His concentration broken, he looked on towards the source of the pink shield along with everyone else, scowling as several figures leaped out of Lars' hair and onto the ground in front of him. Pearl was the next to attack this new threat, shooting out several lasers from her spear which managed to break apart the pink spikes and allow them to dissipate, freeing the others from their imprisonment. Connie winced as the wound in her leg began to bleed even more, while the other gems were busy regenerating their minor damage. Nevertheless, even this was overshadowed by her optimism at seeing the familiar faces of the Crystal Gems alongside Padparadscha and the Rutile twins.

Steven, rather than confronting this new threat, moved immediately to Connie's side, placing some of his healing spit onto her wound.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner!" he said, panicking slightly. "Lion was hanging out back at the ship, so it took them a while to reach us and for us to get back and I was so worried and-!"

"Hey, Steven?" Connie cut him off, smiling at her friend's behavior.

"Yeah?" he asked before she pointed over at Pink, who was scowling furiously as he considered the implications behind the existence of this alternative Steven. His eyes widened. "Oh, right. Evil Me. Yeah. That's a thing."

"Mhm," she replied, amused.

"Wow, he does **not** look happy," he remarked as he looked into his eyes.

"He really is not," Connie added.

"...Want to make him even madder?" Steven asked, holding out his hand.

Connie smirked as she took it. "Thought you'd never ask."

With that, they quickly fused into Stevonnie, holding out their sword and summoning a shield as they prepared to stand against Pink. As expected, the action only further enraged the young prince.

"Tch! To think that an alternate version of me would stoop so low as to fuse with some weak human."

"To think that an alternate version of Steven would be a complete psychopath," they shot back. Pink merely chuckled.

"As I suspected, you've spent far too much time among these lesser creatures. It's made you forget that you are above them."

Stevonnie chuckled. "Yeah, okay, keep telling yourself that, pal."

Pink growled as he sent out a series of spikes their way, which Stevonnie easily dodged before placing him in a bubble extended from their arm. Pink angrily sent out a wave of spikes from his body to pierce the bubble, the resulting action causing the spikes to dissipate as well. Meanwhile, the other gems began to rally with Lars and the Crystal Temps, forming a plan of action.

Padparadscha peered into the past before announcing her finding to the group. "Pink's spikes can be destroyed most easily by energy attacks!"

"Pearl?" Garnet asked. Pearl moved to Amethyst without a word, and the two formed Opal, summoning her bow and readying several arrows. Lars likewise got back up, having fully regenerated, and readied his fists. Meanwhile, Bismuth readied herself while Lapis formed several Stevonnie clones to try and help out, and Peridot held several more cans above her head while the twins shapeshifted the end of their arms into spiky balls. Garnet turned to Padparadscha and held out her hand.

"I could use your tactical expertise," Garnet said to the sapphire, smiling. Padparadscha took a second before responding.

"Oh! Garnet is going to ask to fuse with me!" she replied before smiling in turn. "I'm going to accept!" she predicted, allowing her gem to glow along with Garnet's as the three gems fused together, forming a slightly larger version of Garnet with an additional two arms, an additional eye, and a more orange tint in her skin. Padparadscha Garnet cracked all four of her knuckles as she summoned four gauntlets and sprang into action.

Stevonnie and Pink soon found themselves locked in combat, with Stevonnie putting Pink on the defensive with a more rapid combination of sword and shield strikes against both of his arm spikes. As he continued to be put on the back foot, he suddenly found his arm spikes destroyed by sonic attacks from Lars. He sent out spikes to try and pin down the persistent fighter, only to find his legs caught up in blobs of water and frozen in an instant. The time it took him to shatter his restraints with additional spikes allowed Stevonnie to get a hit in on him, cutting a noticeable gash into his arm as he tried to block it. Before he could retaliate, he caught several energy arrows from Opal to his back, causing him to cry out in pain and leaving him open to another slash across his cheek. With cans hitting him on one side of the head and the Rutiles' extended arms on the other, along with Bismuth striking him in the back of the head and Stevonnie continuing to attack from the front, Pink was left helpless and angry, caught between far too many targets at once to respond effectively. Capitalizing on this, Lapis froze his legs to the ground once more, leaving him wide open for Padparadscha Garnet to fire all four of her gauntlets at him as the other combatants moved back to avoid the explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Pink was left panting heavily, his clothes tattered and blood dripping from his wounds. As he angrily dabbed spit onto his arm and cheek, the Crystal Gems and Lapis' water clones surrounded him, each of them prepared to launch another attack. Stevonnie walked forward, sword and shield in hand, as they took a deep breath, pain evident across their features before resolve took its place. They readied their weapons and charged at Pink before he summoned a portal at his feet, slipping into it and out of anyone's reach. Stevonnie grunted angrily before sighing in resignation.

"Is...is he gone? Did we win?" Lars asked, fearing the answer. Padparadscha Garnet sighed, evidently troubled, while the other gems looked across at each other, uncertain.

"...For now," she eventually answered. "But...even if this 'Pink' made it back to wherever he came from...I doubt he'll let this go."

"It took all of us working together just to send him on the run," Pearl added. "With the abilities he's displayed here...the ability to travel between universes...he may be back with an army of Homeworld gems behind him."

"An alternate Homeworld...alternate Diamonds..." Lapis considered, shuddering at the implications as Peridot put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Stevonnie took a deep breath as they took in what they were hearing, and considered what could very well come to pass, before saying their piece.

"For now, we should focus on letting the Diamonds know about these developments, just in case. If he does come back..." they paused, partly in reservation and partly for dramatic effect. "We'll need to be ready for him," they finished grimly, yet with an air of determination which proved infectious, as the other gems nodded, assuring themselves that they would do everything they could to prepare for whatever may come.

* * *

Alright, so I'm just going to leave a quick note here as usual, since I'm kinda running late for irl stuff. So, as always, thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!


	5. Day 5-Bubble Buddies

Steven walked across the boardwalk in his usual merry way, flyers in hand as he stopped by each of the various booths to drop them off. Reactions to the announcement of another one of his dad's concerts was generally positive-as Greg Universe discovered upon his return to Beach City, the locals actually rather liked his music, benefiting all the more from Steven's half brother lending his assistance to the production. With all of the various stores along the boardwalk apprised, all that was left was his favorite place in the universe: the Big Donut.

The bell chimed as he walked in to see Lars lounging around by the vending machine and Sadie behind the counter. "Hey, Lars! Hey, Sadie!" the boy said with his usual million watt smile, the reflection of the sunlight hitting his dirty blonde hair as he stood by the door.

"Heya, Steven!" Sadie called out amicably. Lars simply grunted in acknowledgement of his existence. "You having the usual?"

"Nah, I can't today-I still gotta hit three more neighborhoods and get back in time for the concert," he said as he hung up a flyer on the inside and outside of the door, having been granted permission to do so regularly some time before.

"Hm," Sadie said before she noticed the poster. "Ooh! You're playing in this one?"

Steven's face brightened up. "Yeah! I'm doing the opening with a song I wrote!"

"Sounds like fun! Don't you think, Lars?" Sadie asked, turning to her coworker. Lars simply grunted, to Sadie's chagrin.

"Sorry, kid, but your dad isn't really my genre-no offense."

"Nah, it's cool," Steven said.

"Well, I'm going," Sadie announced. "I'm always eager to support local artists."

Steven chuckled. "I noticed," he said, gesturing to the painting of his mother's he could see through the opening in the back room door. Sadie chuckled in kind. "Yeah, we're all pretty excited about this one-Sour Cream's been waiting to test out his latest rig."

Sadie chuckled. "You mean the one he built out of all those old game systems? He came around our place last week to see if we had anything he could use."

Steven laughed. "Yeah, that one. It's actually pretty cool. He figured out how to put them all in this sound test mode so that he can play all of the sounds they're built to manage."

"Hold up, Sour Cream's going to be there?" Lars asked suddenly. Steven looked puzzled while Sadie smirked.

"Uh, yeah. Plus, Buck and the Pizza sisters said they'd come too."

Lars seemed to blush slightly at this news, before regaining his composure. "Uh, I might come by and check it out. You know, to...support local artists and junk."

Sadie was clearly doing everything in her power not to laugh, but Steven didn't seem to notice. "Awesome! Look forward to seeing you there!" he said before heading out the door.

"Same here!" Sadie called out as he walked away, before breaking down laughing once she was sure he was out of earshot.

"Oh, shut up!" Lars said angrily.

"You know, if you ever need someone to talk to about all of these feelings you're having, I'm here," Sadie said with a smirk. Lars' face reddened further in embarrassment before inspiration struck, and he smirked in turn.

"Funny. I was about to say the same thing to you about Jenny."

As he'd hoped, Sadie began to blush lightly as well, putting her hand to her mouth as she smothered a cough.

"...Touche," she conceded, to Lars' amusement.

* * *

As Steven continued to walk along the boardwalk, several flashes of light coming from the beach near the giant temple mountain caught his eye. His curiosity became all the more piqued as he heard a far away shriek growing ever-louder, and within seconds he saw some large centipede creature flying high above his head in two pieces, before landing on the ground and turning into nothing but smoke.

As he moved to inspect the curious creature's remains, he noticed that it had left some green spittle in the nearby area before dying, and noted as well the effect of the spittle upon a nearby rock. His gaze turned instinctively towards the stage that he and his family had set up further down the beach, and his eyes widened in panic as he pondered what could be happening at that very moment, while his dad and half-brother had been busy making the final preparations before the big show.

"Dad! Sour Cream!" he cried out as he raced down the beach as fast as his legs could carry him. When he finally arrived at the now damaged stage, he was met with a most unusual sight: a horde of the same centipede creatures he'd seen earlier, being repelled by three women he'd never seen before. The first was solid white with peach-colored hair, and wielded a spear as she beat back the bugs and blasted others with lasers. The second was shorter and purple, with long white hair and wearing casual clothes as she threw the bugs around with a long, sinewy purple whip. Finally, the third was a tall, red-skinned woman with a square-like afro and wielding two large gauntlets, which she utilized to great effect to crush the insects. The first two seemed to have gems adorning their bodies, while Steven guessed that the gem of the third was hidden by her gauntlets. Of principal interest to him, however, were his father and half brother, currently cowering behind a stereo as several centipedes closed in on their position. He hurriedly rushed to their side, beating back one of the centipedes with a nearby mic stand.

"Schtu-ball!" Greg cried out in a mixture of relief and apprehension. "What are you doing here-it's not safe!"

"I saw one of those centipede things flying off from the stage. Figured it meant trouble," he replied, pausing to beat back another of the creatures.

"You can say that again! Those squirmy little gremlins melted through my rig, little bro!"

"What?! Nooooooo!" Steven cried out in sadness. "Curse you, centipedes! What did the Game Boy line ever do to you?!"

His lamentations were interrupted as a new figure joined the field of battle: a young girl, perhaps a year and some change older than himself, wielding a sword and sporting a fur lined jacket, along with a pair of round pink glasses. With a surprisingly fierce battle cry, she swung at the centipedes advancing on Steven's position, stabbing one in the eye and cutting another's head in two in only a few swift motions. As the rest were dispatched in a similarly skillful fashion, Steven found his eyes inextricably locked onto their unexpected savior. When all of the creatures threatening them were eliminated, and the ones the others were fighting more or less mopped up, the girl turned back to Steven and his family.

"Are you guys alright?" she asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, no, we're good, considering," Steven replied nervously.

The girl simply nodded, her relief obvious, before the immediate area shook with a violent roar coming from the direction of the temple. "Oh, no," she said, as if she was aware of what was coming.

"It's the mother!" the square-headed one cried out. "Gems-assemble, quickly!"

As the three Gems hurried towards each other, the 'mother,' a giant version of the centipedes from earlier with a gaping maw that could've easily swallowed all of them in one gulp, towered over them and began to generate a massive clump of acidic spit. The girl at first stood in front of the family, appearing to hit her arm a couple times as if she were trying to jump-start something.

"Come on, shield! Come on, come on!" she cried out, growing increasingly frantic.

Without hesitation, Greg picked up Steven and took a few steps backward, intent on running for cover while Sour Cream ran in the opposite direction. However, as he did so, he ended up tripping on some downed equipment, sending both of them to the ground. As Steven endeavored to get off of his dad and allow them to escape, the acid was seconds away from being fired directly at them. No sooner had Greg gotten to his feet than Steven poured all of his strength into shoving his father away, sending him falling to the ground once more, out of range of the acid as it was let loose.

"STEVEN!" his father cried out, having moved himself back a few paces out of instinct before he began to reconsider when faced with the sight of his son standing directly in front of the acid stream. As Steven braced himself, the girl saw the acid wall approaching the pair of them and rapidly turned towards him, intending to push him out of the way as well. In doing so, something around her navel began to glow, and before either of them knew it, they were enveloped in a bright pink bubble just seconds before the acid hit them, sending them flying across the beach. After a few bumps jostled them around, they finally landed relatively unscathed, the acid stream leaving its mark upon the landscape.

Steven first looked towards the stage to try and make out the forms of his father and half brother. To his relief, both of them had made it safely away from the stage and out of danger, and were now hurriedly running across the beach to check on him. This fact established, he then had time to notice his own predicament, the girl having landed on top of him over the course of their journey and asking about his condition. Although he blushed profusely, the girl didn't seem particularly affected, calmly getting off of him with a quick word of apology.

This matter dealt with, the two then looked in the direction of the stage, where a giant six armed woman was currently in the process of wrestling with the giant centipede. As it attempted to release a stream of acid, the giant woman countered with a blast of fire from what appeared to be a second mouth, stunning the creature and giving the woman the advantage she needed to lift it up and slam it down onto the stage, decimating it completely. Not wasting a minute, the figure seemed to summon a giant fist hammer from thin air, which she used to hit the creature on the head several times as it attempted to get up. This tactic not appearing to work, the figure dismissed the hammer just as easily as she'd summoned it, and pulled out a massive bow with arrows which seemed to be made of pure energy. Using this, just as the creature looked up from its prone position, the figure ruthlessly shot it in the eye at point blank range. With one last cry of agony, the centipede creature disappeared into smoke, nothing appearing to be left save for a small object Steven could barely make out which the giant woman gingerly picked up before enveloping in a tiny bubble. Both Steven and Connie stood starstruck as they watched the engagement, before the giant woman seemed to glow with a teal light before disappearing, leaving the three women from before in her wake, who swiftly moved to check on them.

"Connie!" the one with the gem on her forehead cried. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Is the human boy hurt? Are his familial relations hurt? Are-?"

"Everyone's fine, Pearl," Connie replied, as if she was used to her behavior by this point, before her eyes widened again. "But on a related note, WHAT WAS THAT?!" she asked excitedly.

Pearl recoiled slightly at the girl's excitement, but recomposed herself. "I'll explain it to you later. For now, though, can you dismiss the bubble?"

"Uh..." Connie said before grunting with considerable effort, trying to unmake the bubble by sheer willpower, before sighing. "Nope."

"Got it. Hold still," the one with the afro replied as she summoned a gauntlet, to the others' alarm. Before they could stop her, she brought her hand down upon the bubble, straining it until it popped and let out a distressed Connie and Steven.

"Garnet! You should've given us warning before doing something like that!" Pearl chided her. Garnet simply shrugged.

"I knew it would work."

"Steven!" Greg called out as he and Sour Cream finally made it to their position. He quickly wrapped up Steven in an embrace, with Sour Cream following suit. "Oh, I was so worried! What were you **thinking **standing in front of a giant stream of acid?!"

"Your son was very brave," Garnet said to the concerned parent. "There are few humans who would be willing to endanger themselves to save another so easily."

Greg considered her words before sighing. "I'm just glad you're okay, Schtu-ball."

Steven smiled as he returned his dad's hug. "Me too, Dad." He then looked off towards the stage. "It's too bad about the stage, though."

The gems took in a deep breath as they surveyed the damage.

"Oooooh...sorry about that," Pearl said apologetically, but Greg waved her off.

"Eh. We can set it up again in time for next week," he said optimistically.

"And we can help them out! Right, Garnet?" Connie asked, to Steven's surprise. Garnet nodded, causing Pearl and the other gem to nod in turn.

"It's the least we can do to make it up to you," she said.

"I think Amethyst even has some stuff in her room that you might be able to utilize for that...whatever that was," Pearl said, gesturing towards Sour Cream's melted rig. His face brightened up.

"Really?! Thanks, dude!"

"Don't mention it, man," Amethyst replied with a grin.

"At the very least, we should begin salvaging what we can immediately," Pearl stated, to everyone's agreement. And like that, they set out to work. Hours later, when the beach was clear of all of the debris kicked up by the skirmish and everything had been salvaged, Steven prepared to leave with his family when Connie walked up to him, slightly nervous.

"Hey, uh...Steven, was it?" she began, to which Steven nodded for her to continue. "This concert next week...it's an open invite, right?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah! My dad doesn't believe in charging people to come to his concerts. Says it poisons the integrity of the music, or something like that." He blushed slightly before continuing, "Y-you're more than welcome to come."

"Ah," she said. "Cool."

"So, uh, see you there next week then?"

"Yeah! Yeah, totally."

"Alright! Awesome!" Steven said, smiling. "Well, I'll, uh, see you tomorrow afternoon. To start on the stage."

"Okay," she said before pausing for a moment. "Uh...bye!" she eventually said, tripping over the word slightly.

"Bye!" Steven called back before running to meet up with his family. Unbeknownst to him, Sour Cream had been observing the entire exchange, and took that moment to make it known.

"Oooh! Steven has a crush~!" he said in as sing-songy a voice as he could muster, to Steven's embarrassment.

"W-what? Says who?!"

"It's pretty obvious, little dude," he said, ruffling his hair a bit to his annoyance. "Hey, bro, it's all good! I'm more than happy to lend my services as wingman."

"I don't need a 'wingman!'" he protested. Sour Cream simply chuckled.

"Oh, confident, are we? Good-I'm told women like that."

"Please stop," he muttered defeatedly as he buried his face in his hands. Greg chided his stepson.

"Alright, Sour Cream, that's enough. How Steven handles his crush is his own business."

"Thank you, Dad," Steven said before the realization hit. "...Wait a second," he added, to the others' laughter. "Oh, you both suck!" he said indignantly.

"Like he said-it was obvious," Greg said, taking his turn to ruffle Steven's hair. "But I'll make sure Sour Cream leaves you alone tomorrow." Steven simply grumbled in embarrassment.

Meanwhile, back at the temple, Pearl and Garnet set to work cleaning up the slight mess that the Centipeetle Mother had made of the cabin, while Amethyst lounged on the couch and Connie grabbed herself a banana as a snack.

"So, that Steven kid was cute, huh?" Amethyst suddenly asked, causing Connie to blush slightly.

"E-excuse me?"

"Ohoho, don't you start!" Pearl shot back immediately from behind the bathroom door.

"Awww, P, I was just-"

"Nope!"

"But-"

"No!"

"I-"

"Drop it!"

"Ugggh! Fiiiine," she said, her dissatisfaction evident, yet Connie could tell from the look in her eyes that the subject was far from dropped in her head. She sighed in preparation for the week of teasing she was about to endure.

Still, she thought to herself with a slight smile, she had to admit to a certain feeling of anticipation for tomorrow.

* * *

And Day 5 is done! Today's prompt was "Hybrid Connie," so I decided to take it to another AU. Not too much has changed here-unlike the usual Momswap formula, I've decided to just have it be Connie with Steven's gem and Steven in her role as backup boy. Although, in this case, it isn't quite as big, since in this AU, Pearl already taught Connie how to sword fight in preparation for becoming a Crystal Gem.

As far as the history of this little AU goes, Doug was working a job at Funland one day and Rose just so happened to stop by. Things progressed from there. After she's gone, Doug is in a bit of a fix, since his job necessitates going all over the place, ntm he had to finance the cabin. So, he's just kind of been living wherever he can get cheap rent, sending everything else back to the Gems. Other than that, his relationship with Connie is similar, and to top it off, he's even been seeing a certain medical professional from Charm City Hospital. ;)

As for Steven's family, story there is that back when Doug and Rose were dating, Vidalia was faced with either selling her parents' house and moving away from her hometown, or renting the place out. It just so happens that Greg, having ultimately split with Marty anyway because Marty, needs a place to stay while he's in between jobs. He agrees to take care of Sour Cream and pay what rent he can while working at the wash. One thing leads to another, they fall in love and get married, and Steven Universe is born.

Also, just wanted to say: I ship Larsadie as much as the next guy, but that exchange was too funny to pass up.

Anywho, hope you all enjoyed reading, and let me know what you thought about these stories thus far!


	6. Day 6-100,000 Light Years

"Wow. This thing is incredible!"

As she spoke, Connie was holding a direct link to the diamond communication line, transmitting a video call across an entire galaxy to reach Steven's transmitter on the other end, in real time.

"Yeah, Homeworld's got a lot of cool stuff like that," Steven answered. "I've actually been looking into spreading that around to the other intelligent species we've met so far."

Connie chuckled. "Well, if you put it before Congress, I'm sure it'll be approved in no time. The people love you. Like, seriously-it's unnatural for a politician to be this well-loved."

Steven chuckled in turn. "You're telling me. Things have changed a lot in the last two years. I haven't counted a single summoned weapon thrown my way in months!"

"Surprising how quickly elites used to a centuries old caste system adapt to said caste system being abolished once they realize it means they aren't being oppressed by their own leaders anymore," Connie remarked wryly, to Steven's amusement. "How's everyone else doing?"

"Well, Pearl's being an awesome vice president, as always," Steven said proudly. "Garnet's been helping a lot as Defense Secretary, and Jasper has...**really** gotten invested into her role as Secretary of the Space Fleet. Amethyst is still opting to stay out of 'boring government stuff,' which-to be quite honest-I can't really blame her for."

Connie laughed. "Let me guess-paperwork?"

"Soooo. Muuuch. Paperwooork," he whined overdramatically, to Connie's amusement. "I shudder to think how you'll manage it in seven years. I doubt I'll be all that sorry to step down once it's safe to do so."

"Pffft! I think being a Congressional representative will be a **little **easier than running a galactic democracy."

"Actually, it's not really a galactic democracy anymore." Connie's eyes widened as Steven continued, "The colonial resettlement programs have been going really well so far. As it stands, the entire gem population lives within an area a fourth the size of the original Gem Empire, with the exception of Earth."

"But what about all of those planets?" Connie asked, confused. "Are they just neutral space now?"

"Eh, more or less. We'll be hanging onto them for as long as it takes our terraformers to reverse the damage done to them by the Kindergartens. After that, we'll be leaving them alone for the most part. If somebody wants to colonize them or settle down, they'll get no argument from us. Of course, if we haven't met them before, we'd definitely want to make contact. Never hurts meeting new people, after all."

Connie smiled before tilting her head, acknowledging an additional point. "Plus, if they plan to hurt the planets in any way, it doesn't hurt to let them know that a guy who can bench a planet is close at hand and very concerned about that sort of thing."

Steven laughed. "Come on, you know full well I'm not **that **strong."

"So pushing that one planet's moon back into orbit with your bare hands-that never happened?"

"...It wasn't **that **big of a moon."

"Bigger than ours!"

"Yeah, well, that's still not the size of a planet!"

"And you're still growing!" she pointed out. "I would not put benching planets past you by the time you're done."

Steven laughed heartily before a Jasper walked up to him and pulled him away from the screen for a second, saying something Connie couldn't make out. Steven nodded and turned back to the screen as she walked away.

"Ah, right, sorry-I'm set to speak at the Diamond Memorial in an hour." He chuckled sheepishly. "Really wish you were here-you'd make a heck of a speechwriter."

Connie laughed. "Don't worry, biscuit-you've got this."

Steven laughed in turn. "What time is it where you're at?"

"Uh...10:20, it looks like," Connie remarked. Steven grimaced slightly.

"Well, I'll try and reach you when I'm done, but if you're asleep, I'll call first thing in the morning, okay?"

"Got it. Go get them, Tiger," Connie said playfully, to Steven's chagrin.

"Con, I've been retired from the world of wrestling for like five years."

"You'll always be Tiger Millionaire in my heart."

Steven laughed. "If you say so." After a pause he added, "I love you."

Connie smiled.

"I love you, too," she said, before shutting off the communicator.

* * *

Day 6 is done! The prompt is Long Distance Relationship. Not too much to say this one-later future where Connie's in college studying political science, and Steven is in space serving as president of the democratic Gem Republic following...something happening to the Diamonds(truthfully, hadn't settled on them abdicating or dying). Anywho, thank you all for reading, and stay tuned for the final installment tomorrow!


	7. Day 7-Together

"So, can I open my eyes now?"

"Uh...sure," Steven replied, evidently nervous. "But don't turn around yet-it's taking a bit longer than I thought."

Connie sighed, slightly annoyed. "Alright," she said as she opened her eyes. Although she knew that she was in a bubble and off of the ground, only now did she realize that the two of them were currently in orbit of Earth, just outside of the maximum extent of Earth's atmosphere.

"Oh my gosh," she muttered, taking in the splendor of the Earth from their current distance. While she was distracted, Steven motioned a brief thumbs up to Lapis, who stayed out of her sight as she flew off following their brief flight up.

"Yeah, it really is pretty, huh?" Steven said with a smile.

"I don't think I ever actually got the chance to see what it looked like when we went off to Homeworld," she replied.

"I've...seen it more times than is probably healthy. Not all of them from within a bubble."

Connie chuckled. "Yeah...still, though. It's definitely something. I mean, think about it-only five hundred and thirty six people besides us have ever had the chance to look at this view in the entire history of the human species!"

Steven chuckled. "Not to mention walking on the moon."

"Honestly, you probably have a record. 'Most departures from Earth.'"

Steven laughed. "Think I should call up Guinness?"

"Totally!" Connie replied before considering additional information. "Of course, they don't give out a prize or anything."

"Eh, we already have more than enough money," Steven said with a grin. "Anywho...few more seconds, and...now."

Connie scooted around in the bubble in order to turn around and get a look at just what Steven had prepared, only for her eyes to widen in utter disbelief. Her face turned completely scarlet as she drew her hands up to her mouth, and she was left on her knees, staring unblinking at Steven's surprise. At first, Steven simply stood there, wishing to give her a moment to process, but when she began hyperventilating, he rushed to her side.

"Connie! Are you okay?!" he cried out in panic, while in his head his thoughts were traveling at a thousand miles a second. "_Oh gosh she literally can't process it it was too soon oh gosh it was too soon oh heck oh no things are just going to be incredibly awkward forever until the end of time and it's all my fault and-!"_

Connie held up a finger to assure him that things were okay. "I'm fine!" she replied somewhat hoarsely. "I'm fine! I just..." she paused for a moment, thinking the whole situation over, before breaking down. "I just needed time to process that a boy just confessed his feelings for me through a giant love note carved into a heart on the frickin moon with a pair of giant robot legs!"

She began to gasp for breath once more, only this time it was the result of her suffering from a fit of hysterical laughter. Despite his apprehension over her reaction, Steven found it impossible not to join in, and the two of them both fell onto the floor of the bubble laughing hysterically at the circumstances they found themselves in. Eventually, when both of them were done, they turned themselves so they faced each other, Steven looking into Connie's eyes as he sighed deeply.

"Yeah, that was...definitely too much, huh?"

"I'll say," Connie replied, laughing. "You'll have a heck of a time topping that next year."

At this, it was Steven's turn to turn completely red in the face as he began stuttering uncontrollably. Eventually, after several seconds of this, he finally managed to get out a coherent response. "Uh, n-next year?"

Connie simply sighed and looked at him like he still didn't understand what was going on. Before he could ask anything else, she suddenly pulled him closer to her by his shirt, allowing her to plant a kiss on his forehead. She giggled as she watched him devolve even further into a blushy mess.

"Wow. I don't think I've ever seen you this embarrassed."

Steven simply sighed, partly out of relief and partly out of embarrassment. Connie chuckled once more, loosely draping a hand onto his shoulder.

"Jeez. Were you really that scared I wouldn't feel the same way?"

Steven could only nod in response.

"Dude," she replied more seriously. "I tried to kiss you, like, two months after we met. Plus the dance thing on your birthday. You were **fine**." She laughed happily as she recalled the experience. "Honestly, I was worried I was pressuring you or something. Figured it'd be better to wait for you to come out and admit it, but...**this**..." she finished as she resumed laughing heartily. "This is frickin **insane**!"

Steven laughed along with her as he finally began to get comfortable enough to respond in full sentences. "Still doesn't quite cover it," he said, in as suave a voice as he could muster, causing Connie to laugh even harder.

"Oh, stop!" she said, playfully hitting him in the arm as she bowled over, Steven following suit. After another moment of heartfelt laughter, Steven sighed again.

"So you always knew, huh?"

Connie chuckled. "Even discounting the picture of me you keep by your bed, how Garnet reacted when she saw Stevonnie the first time, and a hundred other things, you can't really help wearing your heart on your sleeve, Steven," she said. "That's one of the things I like the most about you."

Connie found herself blushing along with Steven, and the two laughed together for a minute before quieting down once more.

"So...are we-?"

"**Yes**, it's like I didn't **just **get through explaining this!" Connie said in a playfully annoyed tone, smiling all the while. "I like you, you like me-seems pretty clear cut, don't you think?"

"Ah...okay," Steven said, still slightly anxious yet generally happy.

Connie snickered. "How did **I **end up the one who has any knowledge of where to go from here?"

"Because you're the smartest girl in the galaxy?" Steven supplied, causing Connie to burst into laughter.

"Steven oh my gosh I cannot even right now you are too cute!" she said when she'd finally calmed down. Steven simply smiled.

"You're cuter."

"No you."

"Did you actually just say that?"

"You're the one who started it! Romantic comedy cliche number fifty seven!"

"Okay but of all the things to say-"

"It works in this context!"

"It does not work in any context!"

"According to whom?"

"According to me!"

"...Welp. Can't argue with that," Connie said with a chuckle. Steven replied in kind before they quieted down right now. Eventually, Steven spoke up again.

"Okay, so sorry if this is kind of forward, but-"

"Yes, please."

"Okay," Steven said before pulling himself closer to Connie, kissing her softly on the lips for several seconds before pulling away. After that, they simply laid across from each other, alternating between pointless conversation and looking deep into each others' eyes, before they found themselves falling asleep in each others' arms. Within minutes, Lapis arrived, enveloping the bubble in a blob of water and gently carrying it back down to Earth, taking great care not to wake the two sleeping soundly within.

* * *

Day 7 is Free, but I'm just saying it now: I'm going to write a Connie's birthday fic for this every single time until the show either ends or it's shown in a canon episode, and no force on this Earth is going to stop me.

Anyway, we're done! Jam Bomb week is over, all the fics are done, and I can finally get back to my regular fics. Thank you all so much for bearing with me throughout all of this. I hope that at least one of these fics proved enjoyable for you. And, with all that said, thank you all for reading, have a fantastic night, and take care!


End file.
